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The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Search and Rescue Unit is an organization of paid and non-paid professionals dedicated to saving lives through rescue, emergency medicine, and safety education. It is our duty to provide the highest level of skill and best possible care to those who call upon us for help. Serving Red Rock, Mt. Charleston, Lake Mead, and Southern Nevada.

On Tuesday, February 21 at approximately 1200 hours, LVMPDSAR received reports of a man who had gone snowshoeing up the south loop trail and decided to try to short cut the north loop trail until he ended up on the cliff bands below the ridge.

Two pilots and three Officers flew in the Huey to the area and located the uninjured victim at 1245.

One Officer was lowered via hoist to the ground where he was able to prepare the victim in the Bauman Screamer Suit for the hoist into the helicopter.

Once placed in the suit, the Victim and Officer were hoisted into the Huey where both were secured inside the aircraft. The Victim was then flown to a landing zone where U.S. Forestry and LVMPD Resident officers were waiting.

The victim was located within the vicinity of N 36 16.825, W 115 41.187 at 9600 feet

Last weekend, our Air Unit and Mountain Rescue volunteers worked together to conduct a training session on the ridgeline of Calico 1 at Red Rock. The volunteers were split into 3 teams and were placed in separate locations. Each team worked on various raising and lowering techniques with both one-person and two-person loads.

Splitting the Unit into 3 separate teams does a couple of things. It gives our team the ability to work in a tight-knit group and it allows everyone to practice working at each station. As you know, it takes multiple people to conduct a rescue, so we strive to emulate real-world scenarios in our training sessions.

As the Unit was conducting its training session, the Sergeant received information on reports of a fallen climber in Calico II. Since the team was so close, the helicopter picked up two rescuers from Calico I and headed to the area of the fallen climber. After finding her and assessing the situation, it was determined that her injuries were minor. Fire crews completed the assessment and treatment as rescuers left the scene.

As Mountain Rescue volunteers left Sunday's training session, a second call came in from dispatch. This time it was reports of a hiker who had attempted to find a short cut down the mountain. He was attempting to get back to his car as the sun was setting, but instead of finding a short cut, he ended up stranded on a cliff face without a way of going up or down. A team of volunteers were flown about 70 feet above the hiker where they set up technical systems and lowered a rescuer to the ledge where the hiker had cliffed out. The rescuer placed a harness on the victim and the rest of the team raised both the rescuer and the hiker to a LZ where the hiker was flown out. No injuries were reported.

If you'd like to see what a one-skid helicopter pick up looks like, we've uploaded two new videos. Same pick-up, different vantage point. Enjoy!